JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy opened up Celebration with a panel that was not only streamed on every TV screen in the convention centre, but online and in worldwide cinemas too. So big was the event, that the reveal of the trailer had a massive build up.
We have the name of the mysterious planet that so looks like Tatooine. And that is Jakku. The two reconfirmed the use of practical effects over CGI in rather a stunning way. Remember that rolling droid? BB-8? Yeah, he's actually a proper robot. A massive amount of technology went into that, and it was well worth it.
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On this day next week, the start of what has become the biggest Star Wars event will commence with a big item. A panel focused on The Force Awakens. Director J.J. Abrams and LucasFilm president Kathleen Kennedy come together with special guests on the Celebration stage on the 16th April at 10:00 [event local time PDT].
The event will be simulcast right over the various stages of Celebration, and even an event in London, UK will be showing it. It's expected that insights into the film will be talked about, and possibly even a new trailer for those at the event itself. You might wonder where the other conferences are on this blog. EA's? Ubisoft's? Especially Sony's? I strictly didn't cover them for the reason that all of my best bits from them will be covered here.
Yes, at the end of this E3, I've had surprises thrown at me. Most of the games in this coming generation are going to be open world. Racing games, shooters and zombie survival games. All will be open world. And so, we've had our Nintendo Direct goodness for the day. And, as usual, a lot was shown. And boy was it amazing. First, a new Pokémon X and Y trailer. Oh, it is looking so good, and by the time of release, it will just be too good to even play. But play it we must.
Two new features, one of which is a new type - that being Fairy. It is super effective to dragon. Returning Pokémon Jigglypuff, Gardevoir, and Marill will take on this new type. Hold on, Marill? Oh well. Anyway, the new Eeveelution Sylveon also takes this type. The next feature, called Pokémon Amie [A-Me] sees you feeding and petting Pokémon to bond more with them. Seems interesting. Oh, and did I mention that the game will be coming October this year. On the twelfth? And so, no matter what you might think of the Xbox One. No matter what DRM issues we have it. No matter what policies are corrupt with it. After that conference the one thing we know it will do is sell.
The first thing the conference kicked off with was Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain - the Konami game that was shown on the sixth. This was a larger trailer than the one saw on the sixth though, and was the perfect way to start the conference; confirming it for Xbox One. So the only thing here was for the fans really. Starting with a small trailer using nothing but red lines, they showed off the three games they'd be showing off, then moved to a brief history lesson and some of their projects in schools.
Talk then moved to social games, even if not much was even said about them. Still, the logos of Domo Jump! and NLB Live Challenge were shown with a bit of what each game was. After the social stuff, it then finally moved to the first of the games. So E3 is almost upon us again. And this year, it is looking to be bigger than ever. Both Microsoft and Sony have revealed next generation consoles, and Nintendo have a lot to show for their next gen console. The WiiU, while getting some game releases, hasn't exactly been winning any wars due to lack of competition and lack of must-have exclusives. That is soon to come though, and this E3 shall prove it.
But not in the way you're familiar with. Nintendo won't be holding a big pre-E3 conference, but will be active on the first day of E3 with a Media Showcase with hands-on testing, as well as a Nintendo Direct for all us fans. There's also the Pokémon conference, or whatever it turns out to be. There is a Konami conference on the 6th, and I'll be checking it out. Not expecting much, but I'll still give a little review of it. And so that is it for this E3. And I must say, most of it was alright, but still. There were some things that just didn't feel good enough to be in E3. Take the number of first-person shooters for example. There was more of those featured than any other game genre. And while they might all have different stories, the gameplay mechanic is still the same.
People could say that about racing games, but at least racing games actually differ from one another. Yes FPS' might be challenging, but so are racing games, depending on what type you have. So it was a disappointment that only one was shown. Yes, the conference was yesterday. And yes, I did watch it. The reason of only posting today however, was to analyse what I saw in more detail. Take Pikmin 3 for example, the first game to be shown. We haven't seen one of these since the Gamecube era which is nearing eight years ago now.
Strategy gameplay, they involve searching out weird objects [in the second one] or parts of a spacecraft [first one] with the Pikmin you have at your command. As well as finding these items, you also have to find pellets in which the Pikmin take back to their onion spacecraft to spawn new Pikmin. That is another aim, to amass an army of Pikmin to help you. Now then, I did manage to catch the whole of EA's conference for E3. Ten games from ten developers. That was the whole of the conference. But there was a hitch. Not all of the games were new. Some were just expansions added onto the game.
Take Battlefield 3, for example. It's already out. But that didn't stop DICE from showing off the game again, but unveiling the Premium subscription, in which you would get five new expansions and more customisation ware. Plus new weapons and vehicles that non-subscribers won't get. |